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‘A change from the gold and black: The story of Wolves’ away kit’ by club historian, Pete Crump Although gold and black is synonymous with Wolves, throughout the years the club has donned a variety of iconic change strips and as we continue to celebrate our 150th anniversary, we’re taking a look at how the Wolves away kit has changed over the years. This is part 3 of the series on Wolves’ away kit history. To read part 1, focusing on how the away kit changed in the club’s first 100 years, please click here, or for part 2 looking into the 1980s to early 2000s, click here. Doritos and Admiral In 2002, Admiral arrived – with Doritos as the sponsor – and they produced three away shirts. Two you will remember and one you may have forgotten. It was a return to white with gold trim in 2002/03, but prior to the white strip being released during the pre-season of 2002, Wolves played a friendly at Burton Albion, and this posed a problem due to a shirt clash. Wolves had not released their white away shirt by this point and were keen to keep it under wraps. Admiral therefore made a special one-off away shirt for us to wear. This was a blue shirt with white shorts and blue socks. The friendly at Burton was a reserve friendly and the team was mainly made up of youngsters that day. Wolves supporter Leon Purser recently brought one of these shirts into the Museum, which featured on Wolves Museum’s Instagram. The final admiral/Doritos shirt was all black for 2003/04. This was the first time Wolves had ever had a black away shirt, surprising, as it is one of our main colours. Black shirts however were forbidden until 1992, as they were reserved for referees and officials. This rule has only also just been lifted in the women’s game too. Remainder of 2000s In 2004, Le Coq Sportif and Chaucer arrived on the Wolves shirt. The first away shirt was navy blue with white shorts. There were also white socks or sky-blue socks to go with it. This was worn in 2004/05 as in 2005/06 it was back to black with gold trim. This shirt was interestingly worn with our gold shorts and socks at Watford in late October 2005. All white with black trim was present in 2006/07, while in 2007/08, Wolves saw the arrival of an all-dark blue strip with gold trim. The white shirt, however, from the previous campaign also acted as a third shirt and was worn on both trips to Watford – once in the FA Cup and once in the league in consecutive weeks – and at Norwich too. It therefore became our first ever third shirt. The new blue away shirt did have an outing on Boxing Day in Hull, however. For our Championship winning year of 2008/09, it was a return to all black, but this time with luminous trim. There were even scarves made with these colours at the time, and some may also remember the rather off combination at Watford on Saturday 25th October 2008. That day Wolves donned the black away shirt but with the gold shorts again, however, it looked odd with the luminous trim on the shirt. A similar combination was seen again at Besiktas away in the Europa League in recent years. Although unlike at Watford in 2005, it looked rather smart. 2010s and back to Puma For our first year back in the Premier League in 2009/10 we saw an all-white with red trim away shirt, which also had a choice of white or red socks. This was the final away shirt made during the Le Coq Sportif era because Burrda produced two away shirts from 2010 to 2013. It was all black with gold trim from 2010 to 2012 and the so-called two-tone teal during the final year of the Burrda deal in 2012/13. Puma returned to the table in 2013/14 for our season in League One, making a return to Wolves for a second spell. Puma also brought a new colour of away shirt, with the all-purple number rather radical and something we had not seen before. It was most famously worn at Milton Keynes on Saturday 29th March 2014 – the game dubbed ‘10k to MK’ which saw Wolves win 1-0 courtesy of young Liam McAlinden. A well-received all white away shirt returned for 2014/15, but this again had to be worn with the home shorts at Blackpool that season. This was followed by an all-blue number which was a shade in between sky blue and the blue of 1992 to 1994. In 2016/17, however, we saw a brand-new colour added – an all-lime green kit. This shirt was worn was on Saturday 29th October 2016 at Blackburn Rovers and was one of the two games that Rob Edwards took charge of the team on an interim basis in between the reigns of Walter Zenga and Paul Lambert. The shirt was worn with the home shorts at Norwich City on 21st January 2017. For our Championship winning campaign in 2017-18, Wolves went back to a very popular all black shirt. This was worn on 30th December 2017 when Wolves dramatically beat Bristol City at Ashton Gate, as well as the first ever officially released third shirt, not merely one being used from the previous season, like in 2007/08. This was the sky-blue shirt with grey trim which was worn on a few occasions, but this was also a limited edition with only 2000 produced, and also brought an end to the Puma deal too. Adidas/Castore & SUDU Adidas arrived following Premier League promotion in 2018/19, with the very popular white away shirt. This was most notably worn in our FA Cup semi final at Wembley versus Watford. It was very popular and well received, being plain, clean and crisp. Adidas then produced an all-black away strip for 2019/20, and many will remember this kit was worn with the gold shorts at Besiktas in the Europa League. This was also accompanied by the very well-remembered all-green Mexico shirt. In 2020/21, the final year of the Adidas deal, we then saw the arrival of what was described as the ‘edgy blue and white’ shirt. Although not the most popular of Adidas’ release, it was accompanied by a very popular maroon third shirt, inspired by our Portuguese players. Castore arrived in 2021 with two traditional away shirts. The away shirt for 2021/22 was all black and this was accompanied by a popular white third shirt. The following season we saw the return of teal, while the pattern in the background was also inspired by the metal work on the Billy Wright and South Bank roof, and there was also a silver third shirt. Both shirts gave a late 1990s and early 2000s vibe, before the final year of Castore, gave us the red with green trim for away and all light blue away shirt. Since SUDU have arrived, we have seen the black shirt with the wolf in the background as the away shirt for 2024/25 and there has also been a radical purple design. This was slightly darker in shade than the Puma shirt in 2013/14. While last season we had the turquoise with darker green shorts and turquoise socks most notably worn at Blundell Park against Grimsby Town in the FA Cup, although most of the Wolves players shirts and shorts that day were not all turquoise by the end – as there was plenty of Lincolnshire mud also present, while we also worse the Brazilian style away kit last season, blue shirt with yellow and green accents, white shorts and blue socks. For our 150th anniversary season, we have seen the return of a traditional white away kit, which we feel everyone will be pleased with. This season’s away offering is inspired by the white away shirt from 1983 to 1986. It is, as the home shirt, a nod to our history in every way. Ahead of our third kit launch in the coming weeks, we believe that is also another kit which will be very popular in the main and look forward to supporters getting the chance to see it in action. We hope you like all of our kits this season, as we feel all three are great and ideal for our 150th anniversary. Wolves historian Pete Crump’s weekly articles reflecting on a range of topics from the club’s proud past will be available throughout the 150th anniversary season on wolves.co.uk.